Last week was a big week for me. I put in over 11 hrs of training---which, it's not my biggest week but it was filled with a lot of quality. It's funny, when I talk to some of my running friends or family -hours is a whole different aspect when looking at training. For runners, it's all about the miles -who cares how many hours you put in? But with the tri, since you're training for three different disciplines, it makes sence to calculate how many hours you put into training. For those of you runners, 11 hours is equivalent to putting in about 95 miles/wk in training.

So I kind of had a break-through in training last week at my weekly track club workout. The workout started with a mile time trial (not all out, just @steady 5k pace) and then included about 4 miles worth of uphill and downhill 200 meter striding with a steady jog in between --basically a fartlek. Well I started out on the mile and just cruised, my legs felt great and I just went by feel. At about 1200 I checked in on my Garmin 305 and my HR was pretty low but I just still cruised in and to my surprise I finished at 5:06...Man just a month ago my heart rate was almost maxing out during mile repeats at 5:35! I finished the rest of the workout with ease.

The next morning I met up with Jim from The Bike Shop. He fitted me a few weeks prior on Blue Steel and I found out that they do weekly group rides. Sweet! I was a little intimidated because the longest ride I had done prior to this ride was a 45 miler the week before and he was taking us on a 60 miler! Of course it ended up just being the two of us and I was hoping I wasn't going to slow him down. Well the ride went great, except for my blow out around mile 40. Even he said that it was one of the bigger punctures he'd seen! I'm glad he was there to help because he helped me change the tire quickly and we were on our way. I was good until we hit about mile 58, then I started to bonk pretty bad.
I dialed in my nutrition pretty good for the most part, but I had ran out of
fluids and I was glad to call it a day.

The weekend included a 90 minute mountain bike ride after work on some new trails I found at Lake Hodges and then Saturday I went big (for me). I started the day with a mile swim at my pool, then I came back to the house and put on my new tires (the ones that came with the bike were junk). Blue Steel now looks ridiculously good-looking. I set off for a 35 mile bike ride that included over 3000 ft in climbing and as soon as I finished, I threw on my running shoes and did 4 miles steady where I ended up averaging 7:03 pace.

I really wanted to experiment with my nutrition to see what my body needed over the course of 3+ hours. I ended up taking in a bottle w/2 scoops of Carbo-Pro, a bottle of water, a gel and 2 shot blocks. In lamens terms, a bunch of over-priced carbs/calories. For the most part I felt great until I hit the 2nd mile of my run. It was in the mid 90's by then and the heat started getting to me. It's amazing what the the heart rate does when you're pushing your body in the heat. By the time the run was over I was still sweating pretty good, so it seemed like I planned my nutrition pretty well. The next day I did a hilly 13 mile long run and called it a weekend.

In an effort to put on some of the pounds I shed over the weekend, I teamed up with New Belgium and drank some 1554. Now this week, it's time to get ready to run another Dirt Dog Series Race on Saturday. This one is a 5k Cross Country course down at Morley Field. This one should bring back some memories of battling in high school cross. Great course!

~Cheers

James

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About Me

I'm a former "elite" runner that turned into a triathlete and have raced for the Wattie Ink team since 2012. After qualifying for IM 70.3 Worlds and having my "Kona Journey" documented in LAVA Magazine in 2014, I took a 3 year break and now document my journey back to fitness with a goal of breaking 2:40 in the marathon and breaking the Masters 4x800 World Record while taking care of my beautiful wife and four kids.